Saturday, August 29, 2009

The BIG 3-0

Well it's happened, today I turned the BIG 3-0!!! It really doesn't bother me all that much, it's just really really weird ;) I think back on when I was a teen and used to think 30 sounded SO old, now not so much ;)
It's crazy, growing up I thought I MIGHT get married by the time I was 30 THEN start having kids after that,or that I might not get married at all and look at me now. Thankfully I found my soul-mate (who FINALLY came to his senses) and I have been blessed with my 3 kiddos. I wouldn't change any of it!!
Here are some pics from my birthday party at my parents house:

Monday, August 24, 2009

1st day of FIRST Grade

Today my Ben started FIRST grade, I can't believe it! I know that he will have a great year and he was SO excited for school to start! I even got his famous double thumbs-up from the car as he was walking into the building!!

Sunday, August 16, 2009

SAN ANTONIO TRIP

Chris and I decided to take a trip to San Antonio to celebrate out Anniversary and my 30th birthday. Ben, Emma & Ginny stayed with GaGa & PaPa while we were gone and had so much fun with them! We left Thursday evening and went down to Austin to see my younger brother, Colin and check out his new digs. Of course my wonderful husband took me to my very favorite place for dinner,Cracker Barrel in Waco-on the way down. We got to Austin and went and hung out at Colin's apartment for quite awhile catching up and then we went back to our hotel. The next morning, we decided to check out a winery that I had found online on our way to SA. We had a little trouble finding it, but it was well worth it!
The Winery was The Mandola Estate Winery (http://mandolaestatewinery.com/) in Driftwood, TX. We ate lunch at the on-site restaurant Trattoria Lisina. It was a truly fabulous lunch, I had some of the best Italian food I have ever had (which means a LOT coming from me~seeing as how much I LOVE Italian food) and of course some wonderful wine. After lunch we did a wine tasting and looked around the grounds. It was truly so beautiful, there were gorgeous flowers and HUGE butterflies, we also saw a couple of hummingbirds!! :) It was the perfect start to our special trip. After our wonderful lunch, we were on our way to SAN ANTONIO!
We arrived at our hotel, the beautiful Westin on the Riverwalk and checked in and got settled. Then we changed for dinner and to stroll on the riverwalk. We decided to eat dinner at the Rio Rio Cantina, where Chris had a Horni Margarita ;) Dinner was great, then we decided to stroll around the riverwalk before going back to our hotel.
Saturday, we slept in and then decided to go to lunch at a place I had found on the Diners, Drive-ins and Dives website (Come on now- I KNOW Y'all watch that show!) called the Tip Top Cafe. It was SOO Yummy, I had a chicken fried steak sandwich and Chris had a cheeseburger~they were both SO good!! Then my sweet Hubby offered to take me to Starbucks as I hadn't had my coffee for the day yet. :) Then we went to the cute cupcake place I found online and brought some cupcakes back to the hotel for an afternoon snack.
Then we explored the shops at La Villita and went to the Riverwalk Mall for a bit. Then back to the hotel to get ready for dinner at Rosario's, which was super good! After dinner we met up with some awesome friends (Molly & Don) and went to this super fun Piano bar called Howl at the Moon. The music was AWESOME and we had so much fun!!
Sunday we woke up and packed our stuff to head back home, on the way out of town we decided to pick up a couple of 3 1/2 POUND Cinnamon Rolls from this yummy bakery called LuLu's Bakery & Cafe that we had seen featured on an episode of Man vs. Food~We decided to save them for snack later in the day and went to breakfast at a place called the
Magnolia Pancake Haus. We had some of THE BEST pancakes I have ever had, when we were good and stuffed we headed on towards home. We had such a truly fantastic trip and I can't wait to get-away with my wonderful Hubby again soon!

Thursday, August 6, 2009

Museum of Nature & Science

Today we took the kiddos to the Museum of Nature & Science in Dallas. It was a bit of an adventure (to use a nice term) getting there & getting home due to the DART system, but other than that we had tons of fun! We checked out all of the fossils, minerals & gems and other animals whose natural habitat is Texas. The kids also got to dig for fossils and go through a secrets of spying exhibit. We had such a good time and we can't wait to go back!